ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears will play their first conference game of the season as their away series at UMass Lowell in Lowell, MA has been moved up a day earlier, and to a new location, Mahaney Diamond in Orono, ME, to account for the impending snow on Saturday and the poor field conditions in Lowell. The Black Bears tout a 6-13 record into the series with Lowell at 10-9. The teams are scheduled to play nine innings in game one, and seven innings in game two.
Tickets to all Maine Baseball home games in 2017 are FREE!
Last Time Out
Maine faced off with nationally ranked #9 St. John's last weekend in a three game series which saw three losses for the Black Bears as they were swept in the day-one double header, 3-0 and 9-3, and then Sunday's single game 15-1. Over the course of the series Maine was held to only 16 hits, with only nine coming in the day-one double header.
A Look at Maine
The Black Bears are riding a seven-game skid into conference play as their last victory came against UMass back on March in the first of their three-game series with the Minutemen. The Black Bears are lead offensively by Junior catcher Christopher Bec, who leads the team in batting average with .367, nine RBIs, 29 hits, and an on-base percentage of .419. Danny Casals currently bats .276, the next highest average on the team, and is tied with Bec and Lou Della Ferra with five stolen bases on the season.
On the mound the Black Bears have gone with a three-game rotation of Justin Courtney, Jonah Normandeau, and Nick Silva. Courtney, the usual game one starter has seen 29.0 innings of work in five starts this season; he touts a 2-2 record and a team-low 4.66 ERA, striking out 26 batters so far this season. Normandeau comes into the series with a 0-2 record on five starts, a 4.68 ERA, 25.0 innings pitched, and 19 strikeouts. Nick Silva enters the series with a 1-1 record on five starts, 5.18 ERA, 24.1 innings pitched, and 18 strikeouts.
Scouting the River Hawks
UMass Lowell wraps up a game with Central Connecticut the day before this series, and come into that game with a 10-9 record, with a 1-2 record in their last three games splitting the series with Binghamton and losing to Marist on Tuesday. The River Hawks, who were picked seventh in the conference in the pre-season poll, have a 1-1 conference record so far. They are led offensively by Chris Shape, who leads the team in batting average with .372, hits with 29, and home runs with six. In the RBI category, Colby Maiola holds that team-best with 18. On the mound, UML has seen the most action from Collin Duffley (who leads the team in ERA and wins) with four starts, Andrew Ryan with six, and Nick Kuzia with four.
